Prepubescent female rodents have enhanced hippocampal LTP and learning relative to males, reversing in adulthood as inhibition increases.

ABSTRACT: Multiple studies indicate that adult male rodents perform better than females on spatial problems and have a lower threshold for long-term potentiation (LTP) of hippocampal CA3-to-CA1 synapses. We report here that, in rodents, prepubescent females rapidly encode spatial information and express low-threshold LTP, whereas age-matched males do not. The loss of low-threshold LTP across female puberty was associated with three inter-related changes: increased densities of α5 subunit-containing GABA_ARs at inhibitory synapses, greater shunting of burst responses used to induce LTP and a reduction of NMDAR-mediated synaptic responses. A negative allosteric modulator of α5-GABA_ARs increased burst responses to a greater degree in adult than in juvenile females and markedly enha

SUBMITTER: Le AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8876130 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature